1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to communications systems and more specifically to GCC0 tunneling over an OTN transport network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Telecommunications systems, cable television systems, and data communication networks use communication networks to rapidly exchange large amounts of information between remote points. A communication network may include network elements that route digital signals, including digital data packets and data frames, through the network. Some network elements may include a distributed architecture, wherein packet processing may be distributed among several subsystems of the network element (e.g., line cards).
Communications over optical communication lines are often encoded using the Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (“SDH”), Synchronous Optical Networking (“SONET”), or Optical Transport Network (“OTN”) standards. In networks using the OTN standard, a network element may send transmission control and other types of signaling information over the General Communication Channel (“GCC”), as defined in the International Telecommunications Union (“ITU”) standard G.709 (“ITU-T G.709”). GCC bytes are often used to carry management information for remote management of OTN devices over an OTN network. For example, GCC bytes may be used to implement distributed management communications as defined in ITU standard G.7712 (“ITU-T G.7712”). A particular type of GCC bytes, known as GCC0 bytes, are carried in the overhead of an Optical Channel Transport Unit (OTU), and can carry management information over a single network link or “hop” between network elements.
In some OTN networks, one network operator may provide a connection between two distinct portions of another network operator's network. For example, a provider network may link to different portions of a customer's network. In such networks, the provider may not want to participate in management of the customer's network. In addition, the customer may not want the provider to peer into its management information. Furthermore, in some cases, protocols built on top of GCC0 bytes may differ between the customer network and the provider network. However, because GCC0 bytes are terminated at the end of each network hop, GCC0 bytes are not transparently carried from one portion of the customer's network to the other portion across the provider's network.